A quiet farewell for middle school

The end of classes brings little celebration as Oneida Middle School prepares to close

Published 11:55 pm, Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Teacher Leticia Boulay speaks to the Times Union about the closing of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Teacher Leticia Boulay speaks to the Times Union about the closing...

Boxes in Lisa DiVietro's class are boxed up for the closing of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Boxes in Lisa DiVietro's class are boxed up for the closing of the...

Eighth grade science teacher Lisa DiVietro spoke to the Times Union about the closing of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

The Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

The Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The...

Principal Karmen McEvoy walks in to the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012 with one of her students. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Principal Karmen McEvoy walks in to the Oneida Middle School in...

Students walk the halls of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Students walk the halls of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady,...

Librarian Donna Phillips speaks to the Times Union about the school's history and the pending closing of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Librarian Donna Phillips speaks to the Times Union about the...

Teacher Leticia Boulay speaks to the Times Union about the closing of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Teacher Leticia Boulay speaks to the Times Union about the closing...

The Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

The Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The...

Teacher Leticia Boulay speaks to the Times Union about the closing of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Teacher Leticia Boulay speaks to the Times Union about the closing...

Items in the science room which will be boxed up for the closing of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

Items in the science room which will be boxed up for the closing of...

Principal Karmen McEvoy stands in front of the Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y. June 19, 2012. The school will close it's doors for good on June 23rd. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union).

But on Tuesday morning, there were no goodbye banners lining the school's hallways. No assembly in the auditorium was planned. Conversations with staff about the building's last week came often with a look of defeat, but with little sign of tears.

"There was tremendous outrage for three days," said Oneida librarian Donna Phillips about when Interim Superintendent John Yagielski announced earlier this year the district would save $1.3 million by moving seventh- and eighth-graders to Mont Pleasant Middle School, two magnet schools and two elementary schools. "But then everyone was pretty much like, 'Oh, well.'"

Perhaps the ambivalence can be traced to the nature of most middle schools, where students are in the building only two years. Some people also feel they're already working inside a building doomed for the wrecking ball, as talk is swirling that next-door neighbor Ellis Medicine is on the verge of purchasing Oneida. While the hospital is interested in the property, which includes an adjacent field, no formal conversations have happened, district and hospital officials said.

The last couple of years have seen the closure of other Capital Region schools in Schalmont, North Colonie, Troy and Bethlehem.

The atmosphere this week at Oneida might be devoid of celebration, but individual students and staff are still struggling with the change, which will spread 600 students and about 110 staff members around buildings throughout the district.

"The kids see all the boxes and how everything is being stripped," said Principal Karmen McEvoy, herself an Oneida student in the mid-1980s. "We have teachers who have been here their whole career. This is family."

One of those is eighth-grade science teacher Lisa DiVietro, an Oneida alumna who has worked in the building since 1982.

"I don't think it's hit me yet because I haven't walked out the door for the last time," DiVietro said. She is bringing her own kids into her classroom after school officially ends Thursday to help box up all her materials and take them to Zoller Elementary School, which has no science labs. Zoller and Paige elementary schools are being stretched to accommodate seventh- and eighth-graders.

"But I'm trying to look at it as a new beginning," DiVietro said.

Phillips, who is working her last days in a library where the shelves are already bare, has found relics of Oneida's past in dusty filing cabinets — including the 1929 yearbook. Pictures from the school's infancy show a gleaming cafeteria advertising the food of the day: prune whip for 8 cents and scalloped tomatoes for 5 cents.

School clubs were also represented, including a photo showing members of the all–girl Housekeeping Club, and the boys' Archery Club members in their tweed knickers.

Phillips is also trying to ensure that if the building is razed, a bronze plaque in the school's entry from 1947 that honored alumni who died in World War II is preserved.

The district is planning to hold a gathering to honor Oneida's history sometime in July. Senior citizens have been calling the school, asking if they can roam the hallways one last time.

Leticia Boulay, a special education teacher who also went to Oneida in the 1980s, said it's been difficult to keep her students comfortable as boxes have risen up around their desks. "It's a bit surreal and challenging," said Boulay, who will be moving to Mont Pleasant along with most of the other special education teachers.

Seventh-grader Tatyana Bluford, 13, was working on a computer in the library Tuesday morning, trying to print out one of the many poems she writes. Even though she just got to Oneida in September, she said, "I think it will be tough" to adjust to a new school. She's scheduled to go to Mont Pleasant, she said, but her parents aren't happy and are trying to switch her to another building.

The first line of Tatyana's poem, "Star," brought joy to an otherwise vanquished atmosphere: "Something shining bright, bringing something nice."